Katherine Dykman - Senior Project

December 18, 2009

Hey everybody!

I sent everything in, so its mostly a waiting game.  I've been looking over everything making sure everything is how I want it to be, I realized too late that the edit view looks slightly different than the published version because the font shows up bigger, so that is kind of an issue with the graphic layout of the book.  But all is well because this first book was never meant to be anything other than a preliminary rough draft book.  Once I get it back I will hopefully have all the edits that I missed already in, look over the book and then send it back and get another copy.  The only problem with this plan is that the new book would be scheduled to arrive on the 6th, which is the date for preliminary approval to present.  I'm a little worried about that.  But just so long as I have it for the week of presentations and exhibitions I think it should be fine, especially if I have the rough draft book to have proof that I did my work.  I'm also slightly irritated with my outside consultants, none of them have looked at the second draft of my work.  Its been a month since i sent them my work.  I sent a follow-up e-mail to both of them a while ago.. still nothing.  Its annoying that they said they would be available, and they evidently are not.  Thats all I have to report.

Bye bye!!

I just realized that this is my last blog post!  That makes me kind of happy.. and sort of sad. :D

December 11, 2009

Hey everybody!

This week.. I have been pulling my hair out over a title.  I hate titles.  I really, really hate titles.  If I could name my book 'Untitled' I would.  Its the worst possible part of the entire project.  In other news.. I put all of my writing into BookSmart.  I still haven't heard back from one of the images' creators.. so I'm getting really nervous about that.. I might have to get a stock image from somewhere. :(.  I did all the arranging, designing, etc, for my book and everything is all set to go.  I'm just waiting on a title and an e-mail from the image lady.  I hope to send it in on Friday afternoon.  I wrote my blurb about my senior project, and I already got my location e-mailed to Ms. Parkes.. I finished the last edits on my sources consulted pages.  I'm pretty much done.  Yay!!!

So next week... I will sit at my desk and play Tetris.. or something equally as time consuming.  :)

Ta-ta for now!

December 4, 2009

Hey everybody!

This past week and over break I wrote and edited two chapters for my book.  I'm not quite finished with editing one of them, but I'm almost there.  I've also been working on getting my sources list into some semblance of MLA formatting.  There isn't that much to report.  I am trying to figure out how to use BookSmart right now so when I actually have to put information into it, its not a huge hassle, but I might have to meet with someone about using the program.  It keeps giving me a weird error that I'm not entirely sure how to fix.

Over the next week I have two documentaries I need to watch for my last chapter to fit in some more historical details.  I also have to work on a woman's biography a little more.  Then I'm going to print and read everything together and do a final edit on the writing and figure out what order to put the chapters in.  I also need to finalize my images.  After that I'm going to put all of the edited content into BookSmart and send it in to Blurb.  I think I will send in my product by next Friday or the following Monday.  Either way, I will be sending it in soon.  

Ta-ta for now.

November 20, 2009

Hey everybody!

 I met with my outside consultant on Sunday.  I felt a little like curling up in a corner and moping after looking through twenty pages of black doodle lines and little comments.  Very informative, maybe too informative.  After reading through it, there weren't very many comments and mostly opinions or her thoughts, but it was still very disheartening and I sincerely hope not many seniors have to go through that.  

This week I am finishing up my working chapter, editing, tweaking, re-reading and then some more editing.  Lots of fun.  Then next week I get to start on my last chapter (HOORAY!) on women's education in America.  I have to read two lengthy books this week and into the weekend about education, so that will be lots of fun.  I'll be curled up on my couch this weekend reading about radical changes in education. 

Then after that I need to get alllll my sources together and stick em into my book and then send it in by the 4th.  

Ta-ta for now.

November 13, 2009

Hey everybody!

 I'm horrifically late for my blog post.  There was a tragic incident with an oversized llama and a lawn mower that kept me from publishing my post.  I'm sorry!

Anyways, last week I wrote some e-mails to Lorna Simpson's representatives asking if I could reproduce some of their work and they said yes (yayyy!).  I also heard back from one of my outside consultants, Kathy Engel, who said that she would be more than happy to meet with me in person and go over my book.  I had sent her three chapters that I had written.  I finished editing and writing and re-editing my chapter on women's rights in terms of race.  I'm not 100% satisfied with it, so I will work on that later.

This week I am writing a chapter on women in the work place.  I'm dealing with costume, wages, treatment, etc.  So, thats going to be oodles of fun to write, and edit.. and edit.. and edit.  I can see the end of my project now, finally,  I only have two more chapters to write before I get down into the layout and all that good stuff.  Very, very exciting.

Ta-ta for now!

November 6, 2009

Hey everyone,

 Both this week and last week I met with my mentor to go over what I had written thus far, and brainstorm what to do in the coming weeks.  I have written and fully edited my introduction and conclusion to my book.  I have also written my first chapter, our of four, but have not yet gotten edits back on it. 

Last week I was finishing up last minute details on my college application, so I didn't do as much work on my Senior Project as I should have gotten done.  I re-made a timeline that worked better for how I work (and coincidentally wouldn't miss my first deadline with my introduction and ending.)  I will now write the majority of the chapters over the weekend, get edits from Ms. Lichtenstein on Monday-Wednesday, or however it takes her to read through what I've done, and then have edits done by Friday.  

This week I didn't do that much work in the early portion of the week, but on Wednesday I stayed till 5:30pm at school writing, and got four and a half pages written.  I only have a few more pages to do until I'm finished with my chapter.  I also sent my introduction and ending to my outside mentor and asked if they would like to meet to discuss what I've written, or if they would (preferably) just like to e-mail me with any thoughts or concerns.  

Next week I am going to be writing another chapter for my book.  Hopefully I will finish it!  I also am hoping to hear back from a man I e-mailed about using his photographs in my book.  I recently found a woman's work I like a lot.  I'm going into the city this Friday to see her show at the International Center of Photography (ICP).  I will e-mail her and see if she would be okay with letting me put her photography in my book to accompany my writing. 

Other than that, I don't have much to report.  I think I'm in good shape for time if I can make myself spin out a chapter every week and have it edited and ready to go.  I still have to figure out what I'm going to do about the layout, etc, but hopefully that wont be too time consuming so I can order the books before Christmas requests flood blurb, and it takes too long to make.

Ta-ta for now!

October 23, 2009

Hey Everybody

This week I finalized my chapters and chapter content.  I also wrote out a time line for writing my project and started drafting the Introduction and Ending of my book.  I wrote a little over a page for my intro and a few paragraphs for the ending.  I also revised a few parts of my rubric.  Lastly I have drafted an e-mail to send to multiple artists regarding their art work that I found intriguing to accompany my book.  I found a new book in the New York Times Book Review called When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of american Women From 1960 to the Present, written by Gail Collins I feel like I've accomplished a lot in the last week and all is moving smoothly.  I hope this upward trend continues!

Next week I will edit my Introduction and Ending chapters and move on to the first chapter and come up with some rough ideas that I will play with over the next weekend.  I will also send out e-mails and do some research on the images I have found so far to see if they are under any copyrights or if I can reprint them.  In all honesty next week will be mainly used up by working on my other homework like my history essay and my science independent project. 

Ta-ta for now!

October 16, 2009

Hey everyone!

Last weekend i met with two of my outside consultants, Blanche and Clare, and they gave me a big list of people that I might find interesting.  I did a lot, a lot of research this past week and have narrowed my interest down to just a few of the women that Blanche and Clare gave me.  On top of those names, I have the names of the people I had been researching.  I think I have finished my chapter list of the women and events that interest me.  When I met with my mentor this week, we talked about the layout of my book, and discussed creating an outline and deadlines for myself.

This past week I didn't do as much as i had wanted to because I got sick on Wednesday, and went into the city on Thursday to have my tooth pulled on Friday, so I didn't get my deadlines written out yet.  Next week I'm going to finish up my deadlines, and try to finish up research within the next two weeks so I can really get down to writing and planning the book.

Thanks for reading!  Ta-ta!

October 9, 2009

Hey everyone!

This week was a really productive week for me.  I finished reading and taking notes in Women's America.  I went to the book-making tutorial on Monday and decided that I do want to make a book, which gives me a penciled deadline of about a month and a half to get my writing done, edited and sent off to blurb.com.  I'm looking into a couple different people to be my main subjects within women's rights.  I've decided that my project is going to be more about women's rights then about women's rights in the wearing of pants.  I met with my mentor twice this week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.  We worked on the rubric, did some work on perceptual ideas of my product, came up with a vague chapter list and decided that pictures would be a great addition to the book.

Next week I'm going to really look over my notes on Women's America and see if there were any other stories/first-hand accounts that really interested me.  So far I have three or four that I remember being intrigued by.  I'm going to do deeper research on whatever I come up with.  After I do some research on everything I find interesting I'm going to try to come up with a chapter plan that has one topic flow into another, and if there are gaps in ideas, or a lack of connection I will do more research and try to tie it in, or pitch the chapter idea.  Once I make the chapter plan which will be late next week I will start drafting my first few chapters and see how it goes.  I will also try to play around with the computer program and templates for books.

Thats it for now.  Ta-ta!

October 2, 2009

Hey Everybody!

This week I didnt get as much done as I had hoped to.  I bruised my tailbone on Tuesday morning, so that put a damper on my plans for the week.  While I was home I read a good portion of Women's America by Linda K. Kerber and Jane Sherron De Hart. Most of what I read was irrelevant to my subject, but a few of the chapters were really good and I took some notes which I am currently in the process of transferring into my process folio.  I also re-arranged some notes and put them into my process folio.  Thursday I met with my mentor, Ms. Lichtenstein, for the first time.  We talked about my project generally, she agreed with me and thought a book was a really good idea and that what I should focus on for our next meeting is coming up with ideas for chapter-themes for the book and getting a rubric done since I already have three outside consultants.

Next week I am going to go to the book workshop and see if a book is something that I really want to explore the idea of.  I'm really liking the idea of making my product a book, with different chapters rather than one massive essay.  If I think making a book will turn out to be a good idea after the book making workshop, I will come up with thematic ideas for chapters in the book.  I will also try to be done reading Women's America and Pants: A Walking History, by next week and start putting notes into my process folio.  I'm also going to work on the rubric with Ms. Lichtenstein on Monday so I can tweak it before Friday.  I hope to be able to come up with the outlines for a few of the chapters in the coming weeks.

Thanks for reading.  Ta-ta for now!